For this article, I will be reporting how I breed and raise my Betta fry.

I’ll be using one of my current spawns as an example, and all photos are from the same spawn. I called this spawn the “Red Spawn”.

Parents:

Father is an extended red over cambodian base HM male.

Mother is a red/orange BF cT

Terminology

Extended red:

An intense version of red, that covers the betta from head to tail, included pectoral fins (fins on the side of their body).

Cambodian:

Clear, fleshy coloured body, with coloured finnage – normally red. With a cambodian base, this is underneath the top layer of colouring.

HM:

Abbreviation of Halfmoon. A tail type in which the Bettas caudal (tail fin) reaches 180º

BF:

Abbreviation of butterfly, in which there are two colours on the Betta’s fins. The two colours are ideally symmetrical and have a 50/50 colour separation. In this case, the two colours are red and orange: which is very unusual with Bettas; as generally you can only have either red, or non red (yellow and orange), but not both. The gene can work together, as you can see in this case – it just isn’t common.

cT:

Abbreviation for combtail. cT Bettas have some ray reductions on their finnage (the spiky bits), but not enough to be called a crowntail (CT). CT’s ideally have 33% ray reductions, any less and it is classed as a cT.

The Spawning Process

The spawning process of Betta Splendens, commonly called the Siamese Fighting Fish, is tricky. As they are fighting fish, they are quite aggressive towards one another.

To spawn, you must introduce the pair to a courtship, which generally has a length of two weeks. Each pair is different, so there is no set time on the courtship process, but 2 weeks is the standard length of time.

In this courtship, both male and female should be fed high protein food. Live food is ideal, but frozen food is also a good option.

The pair should also be carded from each other. This means that they cannot see each other, or any other fish, and are isolated. For around half an hour each day, the pair should be exposed to each other, then re-carded.

This desensitizes them from the other fish, reducing the chance of aggression: but not enough that they aren’t interested in breeding. Had they been constantly exposed to eachother, they would get bored of the other fish, lose interest, and not spawn.

Setting up the spawn tank

The way the spawn is set up is very important, in regards to size, filtration, hides for scared females, and of course: fry safety.

An ideal spawn tank generally is around 20-30L.

Inside:

A heater set at 26-28*c

• A sponge filter with a control valve, with the filter set at 1 bubble per second. Sponge filters are great for fry, as they don’t have a lot of flow: but are great biological and mechanical filtration.

At least one or two Indian Almond Leaves (IAL). IAL has anti bacterial properties, and turn the water a dark tea colour. This both helps the male with nesting, as it turns the water “stickier” and feels like a more natural environment rather than crystal clear water.

Hides. Normally used in live plants. Java moss, java fern, foxtail, hornwart, or frogbit are all good options. Live plants provide coverage for scared females, and later on, fry. Having organic matter in the tank also produces infusorians, which are great first fry food. Live plants also act as trees do for our air: they take the nasties out of the water, making it cleaner for the fish.

Keep the tank bare bottom: no gravel. With gravel, any eggs will get lost in it during the spawning process. Also food will get caught, and it will be hard to clean when you have lots of tiny fry swimming around.

Nesting media, to help hold the male’s bubblenest. I find that a square of bubblewrap, bubbles down, works well. It not only holds the bubbles together excellently, but the male thinks it is another nest, and takes it for his own. Females will also believe it is a nest, and will be more impressed – especially when it comes to those males who don’t nest until spawning time.

Setting it up:

Have the tank mature and cycled. Lower the water level to around 15cm. This copies breeding season in the Bettas natural habitat (rice paddies of Thailand). It also ensures the male doesn’t get too tired during spawning, as he will later swim up and down continually collecting eggs.

Have the filter on one side of the tank, and the nesting media on the other side. The heater will be in the middle of the two.

All plants, hides, and IAL will be around the filter side of the tank. There should places for the female to hide in, but then an open space near the nesting media.

The Spawning Process

After the spawn tank has been set up, and the pair has been conditioned on high protein food and have had a bit of a courtship, the female should be released into it (male still in his separate quarters, not in site). It’s a good idea to keep her there for a day or two. Having the female in there for a day or two gets her used to the surroundings, so when she is finally put in there with the male, she will know the tank’s setup, and where the best place to hide is.

After this, remove the female to her own separate quarters. The male will then be placed into the tank, and will stay there until the pair has spawned.

By this time, the pair haven’t seen each other for a few days, after having had exposure to each other. In Bettas, the saying “the heart grows fonder with distance”, appears to be true.

Let the male get used to being in new surroundings overnight. The following morning, introduce the female by floating her in the tank. Cutting the top of a soft drink bottle works well. This way, the pair can see each other, but cannot touch each other. Here you can monitor their behaviour, and decide whether or not they seem to show spawning behaviour, or aggression. Leave the pair be for a few hours.

After coming back, look for signs of breeding behaviour.

The male may have started making a bubblenest, most likely under the bubblewrap. He will also be flaring up, showing off to the female.

The female should be clamping her fins, and swimming with her head down, which is submissive behaviour. Look at her body, chances are she will be showing prominent stripes. If they are vertical, then those are breeding bars, and a good sign. However, horizontal stripes are stress bars. At this stage of spawning, stress bars aren’t uncommon.

Bubblenest

According to the pair’s behaviour, you can choose to let the girl out into the tank, or remove her. If you remove her, float her in the container again the following morning, and try again.

If you release her, keep a close eye on them, but try not to stand over the tank.

Most Betta pairs show a little bit of aggression, and nips are not uncommon. It’s your call on how much is too much. If there is a lot of aggression, remove the female again, and try the next day.

If all is going well, the male will show off to the female, chase her, nip her slightly, and then swim back to the nest… trying to lead her there. Most females are reluctant at this stage, and often hide. Eventually she should follow the male to the nest to inspect it.

If you have left them in the tank together and they still haven’t spawn in two days, remove the female, keep them apart a few days (remember “the heart grows fonder with distance” is apparently true in Bettas), then try again.

If the female finds the nest to her liking, she will then clamp her fins, and roll onto her side. The male will wrap around her, and squeeze her eggs out. Then the female will go into a trance like state, and float as if dead. At this time, the male swims and collects the eggs in his mouth, spitting them back into the nest. By this time, the female would have come through from her trance, and often looks for eggs to eat. Occasionally you will get a female that helps collect eggs, but that is in the minority.

This will repeat until all the eggs are out of the female. Spawning often takes between 2-6 hours on average, but can go up to 24 hours.

It will be obvious when the pair has finished spawning. The male will then become aggressive towards the female, and will chase her away. If the female goes anywhere near the nest, the male will then attack her, and possibly kill her. From here, the female is removed.

The male cares for the eggs. He catches any fallen ones, and spits them into the nest. Using his pectoral fins (the fins on the side of his body), he fans them, creating a slight current, so they don’t fungus. It isn’t uncommon if the male will choose to move the eggs to a different location, or rotate them in different areas of the current nest.

Male tending to the eggs.

Depending on the temperature, it will take between 24 and 48 hours for the eggs to hatch. The fry will hang vertically from the nest, still feeding of their egg sacks. Any fallen fry will be caught by the male, and then replaced into the nest.

After another 24 hours, the first of the fry will start to turn horizontally, and will start to swim away from the nest for the first time.

The male will continue to chase them, and spit them into the tank. Once the majority of the fry have started to swim away, it is time to remove the male. From there, it is solely up to you to care for the fry.

Raising the Fry

You can have anywhere from 50 fry or less, to even up to 300+ fry.

This red spawn was very small, as the female ate a lot of eggs during the spawning process. It was the pairs first time, so that isn’t uncommon. I estimated around 30 fry from time of hatching. I ended up with 31. Another spawn of mine had 300.

If the fry are clumped together near the surface of the water, they are still feeding on the last of their egg sack. Until the egg sack is fully used up, they don’t need to be fed. For the few who may have already used the egg sack, this is where the infusoria, from your live plants, comes in handy. There may be enough for the fry to snack on until their first feeding.

After the majority of the fry are fully swimming, it’s time for their first feed.

Fry have the natural instinct to eat anything that is moving, and smaller than themselves, which is why live food is a must.

Fry won’t eat any form of dry food, so flakes or fry powder are out of the question. They must be fed at least twice a day. It is better to have multiple small feedings daily, rather than a couple of bigger ones. I try to give my fry 3-4 small feedings daily.

I fed this red spawn vinegar eels (VE), which are tiny free-living nematodes. The VE were fed for the first three days, until they were big enough to move onto Baby Brine Shrimp (BBS). The BBS hatchery was set up between the time from hatching, and free swimming.

From the third day after free swimming, up until the fry were a week old, they were given three feedings of BBS daily, with a fourth feeding of VE.

After a week, VE holds no nutrimental value, so they are fed solely on BBS.

At two weeks old, the fry can have their first water change. Fry are still very small, reaching around 0.6cm.

Syphons are too large for fry, and you’ll probably suck them all up.

I attach a long bit of airline tubing (normally 0.5cm in diameter), and tape a chopstick to one end, for control. Slowly use it just as you would syphon. Only take out about 1L of water.

Put the old water in a glass jar, and stand it near a light for an hour. After it settles, check for any fry you may have sucked up, and replace them back into the tank.

To add new water, attach an air-stone to one end of your airline syphon. Have the new water higher than the tank, and syphon the new water into the fry tank. The attached air stone will ensure the water trickles. A sudden rush of new water can stun fry, killing them.

A good rule of thumb for water changes: if you take out 1L, replace with 2L. This will eventually fill the tank to the top (since the water level was lowered for spawning). Once the tank is filled, replace the same amount of water you took out.

From this two week mark, start daily water changes.

The constant water changes keeps the water level perfect, as fry are sensitive, and uneaten live food rots.

It also removes the Growth Inhibiting Hormone (GIH).

The Growth Inhibiting Hormone (GIH) is a hormone fry release. In the wild, the largest fry release this, and it stunts all other fry. This ensures they are the biggest, and there are enough resources (larger territory, food) for them. The Growth Inhibiting Hormone is handy in the wild, but not so much when you are trying to raise fry. The GIH is the reason why there are always larger fry in the spawn, with noticeable runts. Frequent waterchanges remove the GIH, and helps all the fry to grow.

This particular red spawn grew at an amazing pace, which would have been a combination of daily waterchanges, live food, and genetics. They started to get colour at only 2.5 weeks old, rather than the standard 8-10 weeks.

At the three week mark, grindal worms can be introduced, along with BBS. Continue daily waterchanges.

At around the four-five week mark, you can introduce live blackworms. Keep fry on BSS. Grindals are optional. Live blackworms are fantastic, as they are aquatic worms. Any left uneaten will just live in the tank, until it is preyed on.

Depending on the size of the spawn, you may now move the fry to a grow out tank. Grow out tanks are much larger tanks, and range in size. Some use 2ft, 3ft, or 4ft tanks.m I personally have a 3ft growout. The growout tank gives fry more room to grow, with more fry to water ratio. This removes the GIH even more.

This red spawn was only small, so I kept them in the fry tank as they were.

Continue with daily waterchanges.

5 weeks old

For most spawns, around the 8-9 week mark, fry will start to show colour, and start to mature. Being Fighting Fish, the fry will start to show aggression towards their siblings. At this stage, you must separate the bullies. This is called jarring.

Jarred fry are also carded from each other, which promotes development, and helps to improve their form. It also teaches them to flare on command, which is great for shows and photographing.

I set my jarring set up Bain-marie style. Using a large storage tub, I half fill it with water, placing a heater in the storage tub. All jarred fry are inside soft drink bottles, with their lids cut off, and are floated inside the storage tub.

This is both space effective, and saves energy – as you heat all jarred fry with only one heater, rather than heating each fry individually.

Daily waterchanges are to be done on each individual jarred fry.

From this stage, fry can be moved onto frozen foods, although live blackworms are still ideal. You can also introduce dry food, which is easier to feed, but doesn’t have as much nutrients as live food.

Betta fry at one month, two weeks old eating live blackworms.

As Bettas have the natural instinct to eat anything that is smaller than themselves and wriggles, weaning the fry onto dry food can prove a problem. Frozen food doesn’t seem to have as much as a problem, maybe because it floats and swishes around when you put it in the tank, rather than float on the water surface.

Michael Chang discovered that if guppy fry (which are dead easy to breed, and eat anything) of a similar size of Bettas are moved into the betta tank, and then fed dry food, the guppies will eat the dry food willingly. The bettas, seeing the guppies eat the dry food, become competitive, and try and out eat them. From there, the Betta fry make the connection that the dry powder stuff on the surface of the water is actually food, and from there will willingly chomp it down.

Once the fry are eating dry food, along with daily waterchanges, the fry are then grown out to a larger size continuing the same routine. Once on dry food, you can feed them once a day, as you would an adult. Twice a day feedings would be recommended, but only to grow them out that little bit more.

From here, you can sell them to friends, family, hobbiest or take them to the LFS (local fish store).

Here are some fry from this red spawn. In this spawn were extended reds, non reds (yellow), cambodians and chocolates.

Although you can get a large number of fry, it is best to cull them at a younger age to a manageable number – normally 20-30. Although this seems cruel, isn't it better to be able to care for a small number of the fry to the best of your ability, and then rehome them easily, rather than try to care for 150+ fry, and be unable to give each one the attention of live food and waterchanges it needs, resulting in a mass of stunted fry nobody wants?

As for rehoming them, I normally sell them to friends, family, and hobbiest online.Any other fry I can't get rid of, I take to the LFS (local fish store/aquarium). My LFS is always happy to have some of my fry.

I definitely see the point. I just had my first spawn and luckily I only wave what looks to be about 20-25 or so. It's day 7 so I'm just now getting a decent count since they are easier to see. A person can never get rid of that many unless your (a) going to hand them our to not only friends but also strangers, neighbors, etc.; OR (b) going to give all out and start a pet shop or sell online. Most will not be willing to go all out to that extreme. Some may troll on this subject but if you haven't thought of the alternatives you shouldn't breed to begin with. Good advice Sarah

Hi I’m wolfman I’m currently breeding a male red terror cichlid with a female red tiger Montaguense cichlid to make the GREATEST CICHLID OF ALL TIME. a hybrid cichlid I call the (RED PHEONIX KING CICHLID). Which grows up to a large 24 or 32 inches and is extremely extremely extremely extremely extremely extremely extremely extremely aggressive/territorial/quarrelsome and predatory. and as for bettas I’m breeding a female red halfmoon plakat betta with a secret male fighter plakat betta and make the GREATEST FIGHTER BETTAFISH SINCE MUHAMMAD ALI and the royal wedding.

Time can vary due to the size of the spawn. Probably about 2weeks to a month old is a standard time.At this point, they are still pretty small, yet the chances are the rest of the fry will make it as the first two weeks of life are the hardest.

Hi, so I have a few questions to ask. First, how do I choose the right pair to spawn reds super deltas? next what Do I do if I have several hundred fish In jars, and I am very busy too?I am in need of advice!

Hello,First thing would be to source them. If you can find any local breeders in your area, that would be the best place. You could also try aquabid.comYou may even be able to buy some nice ones at your local aquarium.Remember when you choose fish, it's best to go for good form, and colouring – but if it's your first time breeding it shouldn't be a huge issue. Breeding is all about trial and error.Just remember, you need to think about the genetics of the offspring, if you stick any random male and female together, you may get multicoloured "Mutts" that will be hard to rehome.

Although you can get a large number of fry, it is best to cull them at a younger age to a manageable number – normally 20-30. Although this seems cruel, isn't it better to be able to care for a small number of the fry to the best of your ability, and then rehome them easily, rather than try to care for 150+ fry, and be unable to give each one the attention of live food and waterchanges it needs, resulting in a mass of stunted fry nobody wants?

Betta breeding is a very time consuming hobby, so make sure that you have the time to be able to care for them suffienctly before you breed them.

Hi I’m wolfman. For me bettafish breeding is not time consuming it’s fun I’ve bred bettafish since I was a kid. Now soon I will be breeding a red female halfmoon plakat betta with a secret male fighter plakat bettafish they will make the GREATEST FIGHTER plakat bettas since MUHAMMAD ALI AND THE ROYAL WEDDING.

Hello,I will be happy to help. If you can send in a photo, I'd do my best to ID your bettas tail type.You can either:Upload your photo onto a photo hosting site, such as Photobucket, and copy and paste the direct link into a comment,Or, send me a message with a photo via the Facebook page: ttps://www.facebook.com/pages/Bubbles-Bettas/203497696445978

Oh I love this site! What siphons do ou recommend, which fishnets, and maybe some advice for someone who might be into breeding bettas in the future? Also could you tell my female ct's color strain? I have her on a video. Pearlberry Swimming

Thanks. 🙂Any siphons will do, I tend to get the smaller ones for bettas but brands don't make much of a difference.As for nets, the smaller ones again – try to aim for nets with smaller, finer netting as much as possible.

As for advice for a future breeder: Research, ask questions, and be prepared to have multiple bettas that need to be housed separately with daily waterchanges. Before breeding, have a plan on how you're going to raise them as they grow – and have live food of different sizes ready before you start breeding.

Looked up Pearlberry Swimming, assuming it is yours. It's a little hard to tell from the video, but looks like she is a multi colour.

First of all thank you for your post, its been the most helpful one yet 🙂

I have a question in regards to colour choice of the parents in breeding the pair.

I currently got a blue and red male betta, and im interesting in breeding him.

At the local shop, they only have the same colour females, which are the blue and red multi coloured one.

Do you suggest I buy a 1 colour male and get a female multi coloured (since its the only ones ive seen they have available)?

What are the chances of your 2 red parents to have eg all blue or all purple coloured fry? And what do you think will be the most likely outcome with breeding an all light blue male with a multi female?

Hello Eva,Thanks for the kind words. 🙂Red and blue are both dominant colours while breeding. If you breed two red parents there are no chances of having blue fry. Purple isn't really a colour available, unless you count red and blue multicolours that appear purplish. True royal blue bettas and some coppers can appear purplish but that isn't what you're talking about.

If you cross a blue male with a multi female most will turn out multicoloured.

Hello,I'd reply here if that's ok, I'd rather not email sorry.Red and blue are both dominant traits while breeding bettas. The fry would turn out with washes of red and blue. I wouldn't suggest using this pair as fry like this are difficult to rehome.

Please help…I have tried to spawn my bettas, and I got two pairs to spawn successfully (after many several different attempts). However both times, all of my fry died within the first month. I have al the required tools for them to spawn and I don't know why they all die. Can you please help!!

Hello,Could be various reasons why they died. Betta fry are extremely sensitive and the smallest things could kill them.What were you feeding them, and how often?What was the water temperature, and how often did you change the water (also what was your process in cleaning the water?)

All these questions can determine exactly what happened and prevent further deaths. Betta breeding is a lot of trial and error, it took me many years and multiple spawns to finally get it right. Don't give up!

hey Sarah…….I didn't have live food to give them so I got the store bought fry food for them. I tried to feed them small amounts so the food won't pollute the water. and I tried to do partial water changes by using the smallest air hose and taking out the waste at the bottom of the tank, and replacing with new treated water.

Hello,I would say the lack of live food would be the problem. While breeding Bettas, live food isn't an option for their wellbeing and growth.Store brought fry food can be used, but I wouldn't start feeding it until they are about a month and a half (and this would be used in conjunction with live food).Live food is natural for the bettas and they're less likely to eat it, and it grows them much faster and keeps them stronger than store brought food.

Hi there. I have a dumbo placat male that ive paired with a ct female but to no avail. It does not build a nest at all. I have gone through all the normal betta procedures and nothing works. What else have I missed? Can you please give me some advise? Thank you. Anton

Hi. I have a pair of beautiful betas (Both short finned). I introduced the female to the the male. The male flared but didn't make a bubble nest (it kind of did but its scattering all around). The male seems pretty interested. I am sure that they are the right gender. I can see the females egg spot. Please help. I really want to be able to breed them!

Hi. I have a pair of beautiful betas (both short finned) and I really want to breed them. I introduced the female to the male. The male flared but didn't make a bubble nest (kind of did but scattered all around). The male looks pretty interested. I am sure that they are the right gender. The female has a egg spot and the male don't. Please help. I really want to breed them!

Hi! I have a pair of beautiful betas and i kept the female in a container which was in the breeding tank with the male. The male made a bubble nest. Today morning, I saw some eggs in the container so i let her out. The male was trying to lure her into the bubble nest but she is just staying in the corner. She still seems so have some eggs in her. Pls help!

Hi! I have a pair of beautiful betas. I think the male is a red.blue crown tail and the female is a turquoise plakat. I keep the female in a container which was in the breeding tank with the male. The male made a bubble nest. Today morning, I saw some eggs in the container so i let her out. The male was trying to lure her into the bubble nest but she is just staying in the corner. She still seems so have some eggs in her. Pls help!

Excellent site, Thankyou Sarah for all your helpful information. I have just had my first hatch from a red this morning of approx. 50-60 fry. This information has been so informative. I have started following your facebook page also. Keep up the awesome work. 🙂 Phil McInnes 🙂

Hello Sarah,Excellent site! What does it mean when the female is the aggressor? She has tattered my males fins quite a bit yet displays vertical stripes. He does not nip her but displays at his nest. She is a crown tail and he is a double tail. Thank you.

Hi,are you getting delta tails (or super delta) when breeding your HM with CT?how can I breed to get HM with very good forms?I only manage to get around 50% HM, when I use both HM pair with good forms.

hi i have four female betta fish and one male, two female is ready with eggs,can we keep the two females for breeding at a time? or should i give a week time for each, and should i keep the water heater?,because i keep my fish tank outside and the temp is around 32 degrees, should i continue like that?

I have 6 prime betta's, 2 female and 4 male 1 female HM plaket, 1 Male red, white, and blue full HM[w/ some similarities to a HM rose}, 1 female black with a copper metallic body that shines green CT, 1 male HM Rosetail steel blue body w/ off white flourishing tail, 1 male black w/ copper metallic body that shines green whose a HM & appears to be a veil tail except all the fins are always full and he has the plaket shape to the edge of the veil and he's huge {he confounds me as to what heading he falls under}, and then there is Hero. He's a small blue and burgandy CT which I would never breed due to his size but love nonetheless. Right now I am seriously trying to breed towards green. I have at this moment got a female and a male with deep green/ copper coloring {he has majorly beautiful pale gray fins for a HM CT} and the female is similar in coloring. What, in your opinion, is the best way to breed towards solid true greens? I know there will always be multi colored out of the fry because I don't know the back grounds of the parents. I do know they all {except Hero} came through expert breeders for show fish, one breeder in Cambodia and one in Thailand. I have never bred betta before but I do understand quite a bit about genes as a biology major. None of the fish I have now are related and the ones I have ordered are also unrelated. Another words they are siblings of any kind. My females all have the white dot on their bellies are quite prominent now. I feed my fish Sakura Gold as well as dried Daphnia, blood worms, and Mysis. I do not wish to breed for show. Even though my fish were. I bought them for their health and beauty. I do wish to breed for health and beauty as well as my goal towards breeding beautiful greens of which the best I would sell for a bit of extra money and the rest I thought I could talk to schools about having a fundraiser with my fish that I would donate to them with the understanding that a copy of my Care and Needs of Betta sheet be signed beforehand by the buyer. I also have a couple fish stores who are kind to their stock to connect with {Walmart or PETCO are not one of them}. Also, do you suggest downsizing the fry by the size of the fry? The smaller "runts" for example?I know this is long and I sincerely apologize for it. Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for all your great info. I am new to this and just set up a betta in my classroom. The ventral fins on the next to last pictures – your red fry and Cambodian fry – have no color at the tips and give the appearance of exposed bone. This is exactly what my betta ventral fins look like. This appeared on a Monday, after I left him for a weekend in his new tank. He is otherwise very healthy looking, and after looking at him with a magnifying glass I don't see any other oddities. Any ideas?

How do you take care of the female Betta after spawning. I know you remover from the male and the eggs but how do keep her condition?I breed my first couple of Bettas and the female just look sick after I remove her from the male and she died 🙁

I really don't think there is a more complete guide to breeding Betta fish in the form of a blog post anywhere else on the net. All the information you share is spot on and the pictures enhance the post and make it easy to understand and read. Thanks so much for sharing!

Of course, in my opinion the most important thing when it comes to breeding Betta fish is to make sure you provide them with the proper home. Not many people put that much importance on the tank but it is important in order to keep your fish happy and healthy!

Any tips/tricks to breeding I should know? I have two dark females, one blue and black, and the other purple and black. However, the blue and purple is just on their fins a little bit. I have obtained a green and white male. Which female would be best to breed? Thanks!

HI sarah i had recently set up my breeding tank,i have conditioned the pair for the past two weeks and the male was making bubble nest in his own tank but after i put them in the breeding tank the male didnt want to build a bubble nest and i tried releasing the female to encourage him to build a nest.But he was very aggressive towards the female even though the female was being very submissive any idea on what i should do?should i remove the female i put her back a few days later? what do you recommend?

I came across this post today, so hopefully your still actively responding. First of all great advice and very informative. Ive been researching Bettas for some time. I want to breed my male, he is a Blue with red dragon scale and my two females which im not sure yet which one would be the best any advice would help. The one female is all white crown tail, and the other is all blue veil tail. The white one is the one I was leaning towards because I feel she is most ready, active and looks like she is full of eggs.

Hi! I just bred my new Koi betta with a Dragon/Plakat female that came out a little more Cambodian and I really want this spawn to survive. I was wondering, some sites say it's ok to just feed the fry brine shrimp after the egg sack is gone, are there any cons to this method?

Thank you for all of this, you have been the best help with breeding requirements and what I will need. I now know that I'm nowhere near ready to breed and I really have no idea what I bought as far as bettas. Is there a different classification for females and will it hurt her not to breed when she is ready?

I have a little red betta, unsure of exact breed, i just call him Samson. Samson has been nesting all on his own. I am wondering if this is a sign of loneliness or something. Id be willing to get him a lady friend and give this a go but i am concerned he will be harmed by her. Or could it be that he just needs some other kind of fushy pals?

My female betta has a vertical line. It was kept in bowl next to another betta in a bowl. I moved both of them to my 2feet tank housing 2 angelfish and two rainbow shark. I have a 1feet quarantine tank. What should I do. I am too confused. M keeping fishes for only a month.

I've been thinking about the possibility of breeding and your post has been very helpful and I will be sure to put a lot of thought into my plan. However, I am a little ignorant when it comes to betta genes. I currently have an extended red CT male and I was hoping you might have some suggestions as to what kind of genes the female should have to create the best fry.

We breed betta fish but THE tails dont grow big wich is weird for geneticly they should have pretty big tails all sit in jars so we dont know what we are doing tong dont they have enough growing space ?

Hello Sarah,I recently got bettas of my own and all I know is that one is male one is female and they're both lovely dark blue with light blue/Teal coloring in their fins. Even a little bit of a purple looking hue at the base of my male's fins… I have them separated and hope to one day breed them, however, it doesn't seem like the male is taking to his new surroundings all that much. The female however is thriving as far as I can tell.If I could get some advice to help my male betta, who I now call Danny, I merely want him to be happy in his new home.

Thank you so much for all of your information! We have a small, two week old spawn and we can already see a little shimmer of metallic on their backs! They are healthy and growing thanks to all of your great info. We are so excited and happy and grateful for your page, which I have bookmarked by the way 🙂 When they are old enough, the males will be going to great new homes of family and friends. We are planning to keep all of our females together in a 20 gallon tank 🙂 Thanks again!!!!

I have a bright red Crowntail male. Any suggestions on what kind of female and color to breed him with? I was thinking of a half moon but not sure if they could sell alright. What are your thoughts on that? Thank you!

Hi Sarah!I am currently trying to breed my blue rosetail male and my pinkish-white halfmoon female, but the female is not showing and breeding bars and still mostly swimming away from the male when I uncard them. I introduced them a bit more than two weeks ago and I don't know what to do!

hi!very helpful and informative post.i am planning to breed my red and blue veil tail bettawhat will be the outcome of breeding red and blue veiltail betta with pink female?will the frys be difficult to rehome?.thank you.

Hi,I'm looking to breed my betta's, but looking for the 'right' female first. I currently have two males, one black with almost a metallic silver and red tail, and one (I think he's still fairly young, he's still getting more colour) a white body with blue tail with a red ombré (if you get me ��) I would love to breed the black silver and red male, but to get the best colour outcomes, what colour female should I look for? Thanks, Shannon

Thank you for a great blog! I had to tell you funny story. A few months ago I bought a lovely royal blue male, set him up in a great tank and left him to settle in. About three weeks ago I purchased 3 females, put them in another tank to get them acclimated. Well I had 2 females and a plaket male! Breeding immediately took place! I pulled up the 2 females and left the male, still not certain if they had really mated! The females had brought home ick so I had to treat the tank, fearing the end of eggs. Well, 1 1-/2 weeks later,after having to take the male out too early due to treatment I still have some little bettas coming alone. Unfortunately we don't have access to live food so I'm adding water from a newt tank at my local pet shop and it seems to be working. Next, hopefully they'll take frozen bring shrimp. So much for my planning! I have the 2 females healthy, the male fine and the original male madly blowing bubbles again! I don't think I'll try breeding until I have recovered from this. They skipped all the stages of introduction, the fry aren't in a tank for raising them, just a normal one with really rich plant life. And I'm running out of tank space, we have three other tanks going! But all very interesting!

The best betta breeding step by step guide. A lot of explanation. Very good job. If you have the posibility can you explain or link me a chart that shows how betta breeding will be? Hope you understand my question.

Our betta is red crown tail male and other orange crown tail but in orange betta there is no bars and looks like female but making bubble best is it male or female both betta are looking each other and red is fleeing while orange is running away is it male or female we will post pics as well

Hello,I just bought a male and female betta yesterday. I have them separated. I see the male’s tank is filled up with bubbles, as far as I know they build nest only when they are ready to breed. But I don’t think it is, it’s not even introduced to the female. Is there any other reason for the male to build bubbles?

Hi Sarah,I just found your blog here. It is very informative indeed. I have 2 question for you…1. Father is halfmoon rosetail and mummy is dumbo halfmoon plakat. May i know the variation of the frys tail?2. How long should i let the daddy to rest to start another spawn?

Hi Sarah,I just found your blog here. It is very informative indeed. I have 2 question for you…1. Father is halfmoon rosetail and mummy is dumbo halfmoon plakat. May i know the variation of the frys tail?2. How long should i let the daddy to rest to start another spawn?

I'm going to breed and have the live foods, pair, tank and have done extensive research. I'm just worried about one thing. I have a hang-on sponge filter, and as the water is lowered the water and filter can not be filtered. Should i buy a sponge filter? Or is there a way to avoid a sponge filter?

Hi Sarah, First of all I wanted to say that I'm a big fan of your website! Currently, I have two bettas: Midas & Quora. Right now, they're each in 3.5 gallon tanks. I'm hoping to one day breed them when I have more time. Do you think you could give me some recommendations on exactly what size tank I should get to breed them in, and how I should go about doing it?Thanks,Felix (betta enthusiast)

Hi Sarah,First of all, I want to say that I'm a really big fan of your website! Currently, I have two bettas: Midas & Quora. They're each in 3.5 gallon tanks. One day I would like to breed them when I have more time. Do you think you could give me some advice on exactly what size tank I should get to breed them in and how I should go about doing it?Thanks,Felix (betta enthusiast)